The ruling of the Council of Grand Justices in May 2017 did not specify whether “gay marriage” was to be realized as a form of marriage equality or civil partnerships and it stated that the legislature would have to take action within two years on the issue, otherwise same-sex couples would simply automatically begin to enjoy all privileges currently enjoyed by heterosexual couples.

A draft bill did exist within the Legislative Yuan, as pushed for by progressive legislators such as You Mei-nu, which is based on amending the Civil Code to realize marriage equality. This bill would have could have passed speedily into law had the referendum been successful. However, this seems to have been made moot with the Legislative Yuan and Executive Yuan both agreeing to push for civil partnerships.

But now the fight to marriage equality has experienced another setback with the push for civil partnerships by both the Legislative Yuan and Executive Yuan. Swift action may be needed to combat this, although it remains to be seen what form that could take.

Brian Hioe was one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance writer on social movements and politics, and occasional translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018.
丘琦欣，創建破土的編輯之一，專於撰寫社會運動和政治的自由作家偶而亦從事翻譯工作。他是出生於紐約的台裔美人。他自哥倫比亞大學畢業，是亞洲語言及文化科系的碩士，同時擁有紐約大學的歷史，東亞研究及英文文學三項學士學位。

About New Bloom

New Bloom is an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in wake of the Sunflower Movement. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan.